Caelditha

Event: Investigate the dead.

CSI: Stamford

The table is set at the end of the day and the whole village gathers for the feast. Halsa, Jacob, Goenall, and Westleigh are given seats of honor by Lord Cyneweard and awarded the prize of a sword for their victory. The group decides to take the worth of the sword instead and evenly split the prize money between them, earning them each 25 Frost Doals. Lord Cyneweard asks how the group solved certain aspects of the hunt’s puzzles, seeking out who had what strengths and how the group worked together.

As for the rest of the day’s festivities, Odreck won Best Sheep and Andrid won Best Cabbage. It is unknown who was awarded the giant wheel of cheese.

The winning group retires to the hospitality house (courtesy of Lord Cynewear) where Jacob and Halsa plan how to spend their winnings.

The morning after, the team is gathered to explain the origin of the baby found during the Great Hunt. The kids hem and haw and rely on Cruach for what information they’re allowed to divulge. The Lord is unsurprisingly interested in this story and asks them to return to the swamp to investigate further as well as give any necessary rites to the remaining dead woman. Westleigh comes along to assure that a priest of the Faith could offer whatever religious duties might be required of him.

A return to the swamp at Halfbridge! No one is excited for this adventure! Cruach, Jacob, Halsa, and Westleigh head out in the early morning to return to where the dead bodies and the baby were found. The water levels had receded slightly which makes all the mucking about a lot easier as everybody gets to the Halfbridge.

Nobody wants to be at the Halfbridge, but there they are! Jacob is able to retrieve the remaining dead body and Jacob starts digging a grave for her. The dead woman has stunningly blue eyes and is dressed in finery that is very uncommon for such a rural area. Cruach questions Halsa on what she observes and can draw conclusions about the woman’s life and possible cause of death.

MEANWHILE

Leam and Deklin have arrived in the swamp from places unknown. They stumble upon the search party and watch with extreme curiosity as what appears to be a bunch of peasants and a priest poke around in a swamp and retrieve a dead body. The cautiously make their presence known and introduce themselves as a scholar and hunter, respectfully. Leam begins a stream of questions about everyone, the swamp,and the body until he’s forced to give pause for the burial. Westleigh gives prayer according to his faith, all six verses, and the investigation party invites the two new arrivals to follow them so they can find Stamford.

Further exploration along the river find a wagon that crashed into the rapids and more dead bodies. The is a man, presumably the porter that drove the wagon, as well as another woman. Both bodies are extracted are carefully as they can be (still an awful mess) and more graves are dug. In the wreckage of the wagon the group finds bolts of fine cloth and a chest filled with clothing and a child’s doll among other supplies that indicated this is the same wagon the woman with the child traveled with. The chest also contained a letter that Westleigh reads. Much of the letter is blotted with ink that was presumably smudged by the water. Burial rites are performed, Chupi witnesses because no one else has the patience for Westleigh’s thorough performance of his duties.
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“Elanore Rigby”is heard playing in the distance.-

The entire party now heads back to Stamford to report their findings to Lord Cyneweard. The letter is read aloud, describing the wagon’s riders as a family delivering their daughter Aelgythu to a distant Lord Wulfgar, the anticipated joy at the return of her health, and the hope for future children that will thrive in the ocean-side lands of their new home. It also mentions a dowry of cloth, money, and a bull.

The assembled group, including Lord Cyneweard, agree that there is more to this situation than the letter leads its reader to assume, especially as the dowry is tremendously overdone for such a marriage arrangement and both the bull and money are missing (the money may have sunk into the water). Aelferyd offers council on the matter and when asked, Cruarch heavily implies that the child died despite best efforts to revive it.

Lord Cyneweard proposes that those involved in this discovery take up the task of traveling to the wagon’s intended destination and finding the truth of the matter. The choice to accept to refuse the task is freely granted to the group in the same way that someone might offer free choice between a cup of lemonade and shooting you in the leg. Deklin is gently cautioned that he might want to mind his manners should he stand before any ever lord and walk away unscathed.

Westleigh turns his attention to one of Lord Cyneweard’s men, who received a nasty leg wound during the day’s hunt (which was successful and Jacob gets himself a nice slab o’ boar). Although the consensus is to simply allow Aelferyd to tend the wound in the typical manner, Westleigh offers his aid. The man is mostly unwilling but prepares himself for whatever tender mercies Westleigh might have to offer. Westleigh performs a gol’durn miracle both with an act of supernatural healing as well as by restraining the urge to be super smug in the face of all the haters.

Those who actually live in Stamford go home and think about what they’ll do in the morning. Jacob’s parents are not helpful. Halsa goes to Elfleda, convinced that the child is dead, and asks that the doll found in the wagon be buried with it. After being assured that the child is not dead, Halsa goes to Aelferyd. She is interrupted by Westleigh, who offers Aelferyd the majority of his winnings to donate to the village with the condition that part of the money goes to restoring the temple. After the interruption, Halsa is disheartened because she was going to make a similar gesture by giving Aelferyd part of her winnings.

Leam and Deklin spend the night in the hospitality house. Both are cautiously optimistic about the ghost prospects of this town. Leam takes a lot of notes and invents perhpaps not the word, but the concept of a nerd for the people of Stamford.

Cruach plus group dig around at half bridge
Jacob puts staff the body underwater.
Cruach pulls body up out of water
Cruach makes halsa inspect body
Woman has nicer clothes, no wounds, and bright blue eyes
We dug a grave for the woman
Two guys showed up (Leam and Deklin)
Cruach and the men question each other
Guys had journal
Liam offered to write letters from our village
Liam asked about ghost, and where the woman was found
Liam looked at the footprint in the muck
Woman found dead off cliff upstream
Found man pinned to tree by wagon upstream.
Man looked like a porter
Wagon had cloth, clothing, and chest
Chest had woman’s clothing and baby stuff.
Halsa takes doll.
Westleigh found parchment.
Halsa went to Damathair.
Jacob, Goenall, Liam, Deklin, Cruach, and Westleigh have a pint at the greystone.
Parchment. The marriage of wulfgar and Aelgythu.
Alfred says some stuff about marivael and house treafisk
Cyneweard ‘offers’ job to find out about the people in the wagon
Westleigh heals an earl’s man’s leg.